The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes has rolled out around the world, with the quirky spin-off bringing a multiplayer focus on the 3DS. It's with interest that we check out the latest Media Create results in Japan, then, to see whether it's hit it off with the portable's audience in Nintendo's homeland.

There are positives and negatives. The good news is that Tri Force Heroes has made its debut at number one, albeit in a week with fairly low sales. The downside is that it's performed far worse than predecessor The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds; based on this analysis from early 2014 the new game has sold less than a quarter of what ALBW achieved at launch, albeit the single-player adventure arrived in the peak Holiday week period (in Japan) in 2013.

Beyond that the top 20 is at least full of 3DS and Wii U games, with PriPara Mezase! Idol Grand Prix No. 1! being a newcomer in second place. You can see the top 20 below with lifetime sales in brackets.

It was a pretty poor week for hardware, overall, with the only gains being found in the lower reaches of the results. PS4 still leads overall with the New 3DS LL (XL) holding a solid second place - the Wii U dips back into four figures for the first time in a while, though considering the general declines across systems it's not a particularly poor outcome for the Nintendo console. The results are below with last week's sales in brackets.

PlayStation 4 – 22,801 (25,699)

New 3DS LL – 16,144 (17,881)

PlayStation Vita – 12,981 (14,546)

Wii U – 9,961 (11,658)

New 3DS – 3,530 (4,514)

PlayStation 3 – 1,909 (2,105)

3DS – 1,277 (1,232)

Xbox One – 1,009 (438)

PlayStation Vita TV – 782 (696)

3DS LL – 478 (625)

It doesn't strike us as a great week for Nintendo, with Tri Force Heroes certainly getting a less enthusiastic reception than its main-series contemporaries. Here's hoping it'll be an evergreen release on the portable.

I like the game, it's just a shame that it is hard to play at is full potential. Thankfully I've ended up with 3 2/3DS's so I can at least on occasion play it the way it is meant to. Also, I love the Pom-poms.

Not surprised about Triforce Heroes. It's a game that nobody asked for and few people wanted.

I'm not buying it for a couple reasons, first because of the comments earlier about "you can't play as a girl because only boys can be heroes, duh" 1950s era philosophy and because of NoA's dumb meme script.

Region locked online play for TFH will suck in Japan in a couple of months already. That's why you don't region lock online play, Nintendo! If an online game sells poorly in a region, it's pretty much dead in a couple of months!

Triforce Heroes deserves low sales, it is (judging from reviews) an average game which nobody asked for and nobody wanted.

Honestly, as much as I like Aonuma, I think he needs to stop making things on a whim and needs to listen more to what fans want, not his own personal desires. Toon Link hasn't had a good game since Wind Waker, it's time to let it go.

Wow, I thought being Zelda & multiplayer Japan would be all over it, but I guess even they feel like this was a game "literally nobody asked for".I can't really see this game doing any better in the West. Even when there were enough people to play during the demo event it was hard to communicate with other people as to what to do and I'd see even online play getting boring after a while.

Honestly, I think this game is gonna go down as being underrated in my books. Same as the DS games. It's very well made, and surprisingly challenging when it comes to certain puzzles, alone or with people

@SpookyMeths so I wonder when samus first made an appearance?That's the dumbest reason to not play a game I've heard before. It's a fun game that works and plays great. I don't understand why anyone thought this is going to be a original new Zelda, it's meant to be a spin off. I'm ok with that knowing its is not a port and we still get plenty of new Zelda games every couple years.

As a multiplayer hater plus owning this game, I have no idea why people dislike this game so much, especially the ones that did not even purchase it. The game is great fun actually, it gives multiplayer haters a great experience, because chat is limited and it can be even fun to watch many half-baked simpletons understanding what to do after a few tries. Trust me, the sense of accomplishment that you feel for them is epic, especially in the sky realm map. However, this game is not for anyone with high blood pressure or history of heart attacks, you will find idiocy along the way but then again, the extremely limited given chat messages, make it for a drama free game environment. tl;dr: If you are a Zelda fan, you don't know what you are missing, this can be hilarious, but the many disconnects can make it tedious up to 30% of the time. But at one point, you need this game.

This is just me thinking outside the box but since Japan is a closely, high populated region compared to NA and EU, and you can enjoy the game with 3 others close by without the other 2 owning their own copy. More than likely this handy feature have cut down on sale's number. After all it's easier for them to play locally then most westerners.

Cool to see that 12 out of the top 20 are Nintendo games. They really love that Happy Home Designer.

@bitleman@Gerbwmu I never really thought of this as a spin-off, since it's made by Nintendo, is the same genre of game, has its own place in the timeline, and technically features link. It's as much a main Zelda game as 4 swords is. The only oddities are how its a multiplayer game, and the lack of a freely explorable overworld.

Uh...you do realize that this game is a co-op experience. Why sugarcode it? Why gotta bring so much hate of negatively around this game compare to other games that was number 1 yet not compare to it other game in the past? First the other article was talking it not placing top 10 now this was number 1 but not like ALBW? Really? Why not compare it 4 swords adventure seeing that is a sequel from that game. I surpise there's a lot of fans in Japan that like Zelda actually. And did you forget that you only need 1 game to play with 3 ppl so many ppl don't need to by the game when they can just share it with someone else. And seriously if you don't like the game just don't by it. We bash it because it doesn't have single player that you want when you can play or wait for the Wii u version instead. No need to be saltly when you don't want it. And who said people didn't want a 4 swords sequel. And what about ACHHD a game they didn't want yet it sold million? And about region lock. So u rather get a more laggy connection with players worldwide? And to not being able to play as a female character. Really? Barely or if any at all do you Play as a female character other then smash or hyrule warriors in a Zelda game? The game is great and fun. The single player may not be your cup but it a good game fun co-op experience

@Donutman it a sequel to 4 swords and it canon to the Zelda universe as the developer said it themselves. Not need to be hating on the game. Just don't buy it.

@MoonKnight7@Bagels meaning you right cause i heard my fans wanted a sequel to 4 swords. And yes that can still be the consider that either just need 2 other 3ds to play. If it saves you money, you be surprised many people will go that route. And far from mediocre espically since a lot of reviews very positive about this game. This game was meant for co-op and it does great at it. @Varathius the haters are real on this site where many others site actually enjoy it.

@Xenocity Zelda was always better in the US but I'm surprised that in Japan there are fans that like Zelda.

@SpookyMeths you barely ever played as any other character beside link in any Zelda game. Why complain and use that excuse about this game to not buy it? :/

@Mogster uh....did you see the reviews or just this and Gamespot. but a lot of them have been pretty high on score. And you forget that you online need 1 game to play which is easier for them to do. And what about ACHHD which many people oversea didn't want yet in Japan it sold 1 million.

It's such a meh release for me, seems more like an additional mode or a downloadable title so no doubt it won't be as much of a hit as the other 3DS titles. Four Swords Adventures worked so damn well (even single player) and its a shame they couldn't do a sequel to that.

@Mogster What? We haven't had a multiplayer Zelda title in ages. Way too long actually. This was LONG overdue.

And I think NL, shockingly, had the lowest scoring review I've seen. Perhaps there are a couple more low reviews out there but the majority have either loved the game or liked it at the very least. I know I like it.

"meaning you right cause i heard my fans wanted a sequel to 4 swords."

I have no idea what this sentence is supposed to mean, but 'your fans'??

"And yes that can still be the consider that either just need 2 other 3ds to play. If it saves you money, you be surprised many people will go that route. And far from mediocre espically since a lot of reviews very positive about this game. This game was meant for co-op and it does great at it."

This is just damage control if I've ever seen it. Let's just say that this statement is true and that 20K 3DS owners (and I do think I'm being generous) went over to a friends house and used download play. Then that total is 74K. Yay?

Metacritic has the game with 24 positive reviews (14 of which are at scores between 70-80), 16 mixed and one negative. That's a pretty mixed bag for a Zelda title, so I don't know where you're getting this "very positive" line from. I would have accepted medicore, ok or even just positive, but 'very positive'?

I don't think Nintendo was expecting it to do very well, hence we got those demo codes. This is only made worse in Japan, as Zelda isn't as big of a draw as it is in the west.

I tried it, and it was awful. The demo code email I got from Nintendo even gave me codes to give to my friends, yet, when we all went to play together the friends feature was not accessible in the demo. So I got stuck with random people who kept purposely killing themselves. Way to sell it Nintendo.

Just take it for what it is, it's just not a big seller, even with Zelda slapped on the title. It's just too much of a hassle to find normal thinking local players for this to be a hit with wider audiences.

Breaking: Multiplayer spin-off Zelda doesn't do as well as main games. More at 11.

@SpookyMeths What? Nintendo is one of the most female-friendly companies out there. Just because they don't shoehorn genders into a game in order to placate the Sarkeesian cult (i.e like Ubisoft) doesn't mean they're a bunch of misogynists. The whole 'women's suffrage' talk makes you sound last century, not Nintendo.

@Varathius this! Some lag and disconnect is inevitable, but it's a super fun multiplayer game. And I'm multiplayer hater myself, never got into MH4U online, terrible at Smash Bros and Mario Kart online. But I enjoyed Tri Force Heroes a lot.

Regarding sales, well, I think it's quite decent. I'm sure it'll get some legs, maybe not Splatoon tentacles (sorry, can't resist), but should still at the top chart during the holiday. Of course, we can't exactly compare it to single-player main Zelda entry, but for a multiplayer game that re-using most ALBW assets, it's doing good enough.

Wii U finally back to 4 digits after a long stretch of 5 digits. Overall, a slow week.

Personally I'm a big fan of the game. It's not perfect by any stretch, perhaps an 8/10. Great multiplayer when your other teammates are competent but not as great when your teammates aren't good at Zelda. Not the game's fault though. The levels are all really well designed! The material system walks the line between frustrating and addicting but it has me coming back so I guess it is addicting. The costumes are great, but the single player is less than ideal. Not hard, just more tedius. Definitely the fall back option when multiplayer isn't available. I really like the coliseum mode, but the master suit is so op. I also wish I could jump off the totem. Overall a great game that has flaws.

@japongt it takes place after ALBW but the director says that he been wanting to make a sequel or another game to 4 swords and triforce heroes is what became of it. Not by the timeline but the game play. They only used to ALBW engine to make the game easier to faster and because it was a top down view just like in that game. So they just used it.

@ultraraichu I try to see from both points and I agree. It may not be the best game but it having played it and own the game it not as bad as many ppl think. Most of the bad reviews were mostly single player and story telling which is not important to this game at all. The sales may not be as 1million but it didnt 5,000 like W101.

@SpookyMeths ...Instead of turning Link into a girl - which will probably be a one-off resulting in far more Link porn on the internet (not that it's problem) - try asking for Zelda to be the main playable character.In fact, a Zelda game with Zelda as the main character seems like a fantastic idea - with ideas centered around Zelda's wit and cunning.

OT: PriPara performed better than I thought it would.And, I really hope Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon would at least sell-through its 400k shipment by the end of the year (based on calculations off Famitsu sales figures). The way it's going, I can see it doing 330k by the end of the year - maybe even better.

Why did you even reply back to me if you had nothing to say to defend your point?

I find it hilarious that people are so upset about this that they are willing to drum up irrelevant points to make themselves feel better.

You said that it DID make a considerable difference that this title uses download play. I'm telling you that the number is so low, that point is completely irrelevant. Hyrule Warriors even sold better on a failing home console, and being an actual spin-off.

You may like it, but my point of view was the exact opposite. Nintendo didn't sell me on it in the slightest. Nintendo didn't put their best foot forward by not allowing friends to play together in the demo. I have no idea if Japan got a demo, but if they did, these numbers don't surprise me at all.

If you like it go ahead and enjoy it, but don't embellish on irrelevant details that literally make no differece, just to make yourself feel better. These are mediocre sales (at best) for a Zelda game. Leave the PR spins to the people who actually get paid to do it.

@TheWPCTraveler That good but not the sales it needed to be a success. i not saying that w101 is a bad game , in fact it not. It a very underrated game that I wish did better. All I'm saying that the TFH sales are not awful. maybe not compared to ALBW. But to sadly games that needs to he more recognize like codename steam Or w101. I wish it did make 200,000 sales like fire emblem. But sadly that wasn't the case.

@TheWPCTraveler That good but not the sales it needed to be a success. i not saying that w101 is a bad game , in fact it not. It a very underrated game that I wish did better. All I'm saying that the TFH sales are not awful. maybe not compared to ALBW. But to sadly games that needs to he more recognize like codename steam Or w101. I wish it did make 200,000 sales like fire emblem. But sadly that wasn't the case.